10 Oct 23
Coram Voice have collaborated with AYPH on a small-scale engagement project focused on understanding the health risks faced by young people who have been in care.
Young people who have been in the care of a local authority are, on average, at greater risk of poorer health outcomes than their peers.
This project involved the setting up of a youth panel for discussions co-facilitated by young people themselves. This was a chance to hear the views and experiences of care leavers about health, accessing healthcare services and health inequalities in order to understand the challenges better.
Many of the challenges relate to general issues young people in care face which made everything – including healthcare – more difficult. In addition, they spoke about issues that might contribute specifically to health outcomes. This included a lack of health literacy, the impact of mental health problems, experiences of healthcare, finance as a barrier to accessing healthcare services and bureaucracy within the healthcare system.
The young people made a series of recommendations specifically in relation to reducing health inequalities for care experienced young people.
Recommendations
- Offer financial help with prescriptions.
- Make care leavers more aware of the support that is available.
- Consider ways to alert healthcare systems to the needs of care-experienced young people.
- Improve training and education for healthcare providers.
- Improved targeted mental health support offer for care leavers.